Flashback (episode)
:You may be looking for the literary technique of flashbacks instead. When Tuvok begins to suffer from a mental breakdown, triggered by a suppressed memory, a mind-meld with Janeway takes him back to his tour of duty with Captain Sulu aboard the USS Excelsior. Summary Teaser In the 's mess hall, Neelix is trying to tempt a reluctant Lieutenant Tuvok into sampling a new juice blend that Neelix has concocted. Eventually, Tuvok gingerly samples the beverage but, to Neelix's delight, he finds the drink to be "impressive." After heading into the kitchen with the intention of serving seasoned Porakan eggs for Tuvok's breakfast, Neelix tries to make smalltalk with Tuvok but the Vulcan is unwilling to hear about the effort put into preparing the eggs and a fire ruins them. Neelix quickly extinguishes the blaze, which Tuvok suggests may have been caused by a thermal surge due to shipboard modifications currently being made in order to accommodate a new energy source. An audio call from Captain Janeway summons the pair to the bridge. :"Captain's log, Stardate 50126.4. We have detected a gaseous anomaly that contains sirillium, a highly combustible and versatile energy source. We've altered course to investigate." Neelix and the bridge officers lengthily discuss how they will store and use the sirillium after they have gathered it. Once the ship arrives at its temporary destination, the anomaly (a Class 17 nebula) is displayed on the viewscreen but, as the crew discuss the anomaly, Tuvok seems disoriented and his hand quivers. Even though an unaware Janeway issues him an order related to the nebula, Tuvok does not respond. The bridge officers consequently notice his behavior. He confusedly admits that he is feeling dizzy and disoriented, before relieving himself from duty to go to sickbay. En route, he experiences numerous flashbacks of himself as a child; the boy holds the hand of a terrified girl hanging from a cliff but is unable to hold on to her, so she plummets to her death. In a state of extreme distress, Tuvok stumbles into Voyager s sickbay, where Kes is on duty, and collapses on the floor. Act One Tuvok, now conscious, relates his vision of the girl hanging from the cliff. Though the episode seemed real, he does not recall it having happened. The Doctor's diagnosis suggests a hallucination or repressed memory of some sort. The Doctor gives Tuvok a neurocortical monitor to record his brain patterns and to alert sickbay in case the symptoms recur. In engineering, Ensign Harry Kim explains that his sensor sweeps haven't turned up anything that would affect Tuvok or Voyager. Tuvok suggests to Lt. jg B'Elanna Torres that, due to being close to Klingon space, Voyager conduct a tachyon sweep of the nebula to reveal any cloaked ships that could be responsible for the symptoms. But, of course, Voyager is in the Delta Quadrant. As he stares at the sensor display of the nebula, Tuvok experiences another flashback, and once again lets go of the girl hanging from the cliff. In sickbay, The Doctor suggests that a mind meld between the patient and a family member to bring Tuvok's repressed memory to the conscious mind may fix the problem. Being the closest thing Tuvok has to family on Voyager, Captain Janeway agrees to a mind meld with Tuvok. However, instead of accessing the memory of the girl and the cliff, Janeway and Tuvok find themselves on the in 2293. Excelsior is engaged in battle with a Klingon vessel. Captain Hikaru Sulu suddenly steps out of the dense smoke and is visible for the first time. Act Two When Janeway questions Tuvok as to why he brought them here, he explains that the present incident began three days earlier. Tuvok then takes himself and Janeway back three days before the battle with the Klingons. Captain Sulu had initiated a rescue mission (in violation of Starfleet Command's orders) for James Kirk and Leonard McCoy, who have been accused of murdering the Klingon chancellor and are standing trial on Qo'noS. En route, the Excelsior approaches a nebula similar to the one observed on Voyager; as Tuvok turns to look, he flashes back yet again to the girl hanging from the cliff, and the mind meld is interrupted. Act Three Tuvok lies unconscious in sickbay. The Doctor warns him that if the repressed memory keeps resurfacing, he could experience brain death from synaptic pathway degradation. Some research on the nebula that the Excelsior encountered eighty years ago shows that they are quite different but they are similar when viewed by the naked eye. Kim suggests that the visual stimulus of Voyager s nebula triggered Tuvok's memory of the Excelsior. The Doctor revives Tuvok, who completes the story of the interrupted mind meld. The Excelsior was ambushed by Klingons and forced to abort the rescue mission, but this still has no connection to the repressed memory. Tuvok attempts another mind meld with Janeway, but once again they find themselves on the Excelsior. In crew quarters, just before the Klingon attack, Tuvok reveals to Janeway that his conflict with Human behavior (his issues with Sulu disobeying orders) was why he resigned from Starfleet following this mission. Back on Vulcan, he took T'Pel as a mate and began raising children, whereupon he understood his parents' decision to send him to Starfleet Academy, and that he should not have resigned. Tuvok once again joined Starfleet in order to expand his knowledge of the galaxy, and to learn from Humans. The ship trembles from an explosion. The Klingons are attacking. Tuvok and Janeway leave his quarters. Act Four On the bridge of the Excelsior, Sulu lies to Kang, the captain of the battle cruiser, about his rescue mission, claiming they got lost inside the nebula due to a navigational system malfunction. Kang insists on escorting the Excelsior back to Federation space, so Sulu plays along while looking for a way to lose him. Ensign Tuvok suggests that the trace amounts of sirillium in the nebula can be ignited with a positron beam to distract the Klingons for several seconds while they make their escape. As they clear the nebula, the "match is ignited" and the Excelsior quickly resumes its course to the Klingon homeworld. However, three Klingon battle cruisers intercept the Excelsior and begin firing torpedoes at it. Tuvok's bunkmate Dmitri Valtane is killed by a plasma conduit rupture in his console, despite Tuvok's advance warning that the console would explode. This causes the repressed memory to resurface again. In Voyager s sickbay, Tuvok's memory engrams are destabilizing and The Doctor attempts to terminate the mind meld, but is unable to. Tuvok's brain damage is accelerating and he will be brain-dead within twenty minutes if the mind meld continues. Due to this destabilization, Janeway becomes "visible" to Captain Sulu on the Excelsior. Act Five Tuvok offers to break the mind meld, warning Janeway that if his brain is fatally damaged that she will encounter brain damage as well. Janeway decides to press on, since they have been making good progress. They return to the time before the battle and Tuvok subdues Commander Janice Rand, using her uniform to make Janeway seem inconspicuous amongst the crew of the Excelsior. Meanwhile, The Doctor fits a cortical stimulator on Tuvok to bring him out of the meld with bursts of thoron radiation. This exposes a virus masquerading as one of Tuvok's memory engrams, and The Doctor increases the amount of radiation to kill the virus. The scene on the bridge where Valtane dies is reenacted, now with Janeway in uniform, and the flashback recurs. Janeway asks Tuvok to concentrate, to bring them to the precipice with the girl. Meanwhile, the virus in Tuvok's brain migrates to the captain's, and accordingly, Janeway experiences her version of Tuvok's flashback, seeing herself as a child in Tuvok's place. The Doctor fits a stimulator on Janeway and irradiates her brain, causing the virus to move again, and now Tuvok's flashback recurs. As the virus begins to die, The Doctor once again increases the amount of radiation to eighty kilodynes. The flashback recurs now with a young Valtane hanging on to the girl, and then again and again with other children – presumably the other hosts the virus has claimed in its lifetime. It turns out that the virus feeds on neural peptides and bypasses the immune system of its host by disguising itself as a memory engram – the false memory of the girl falling from the cliff, so traumatic that the mind would repress it, thus ensuring that it would not be detected living in the brain of the host. Tuvok concludes that Valtane, as he lay dying, infected him with the virus, the same way the virus infected the captain as Tuvok's mind began to degrade. When discussing the memory of the girl, Janeway and Tuvok surmise that the memory has been passed on so many times, that they are unsure of the true history behind the memory of the fall. Memorable quotes "I am not Human." "No kidding." : - Tuvok and The Doctor discussing his initial episode "Structure. Logic. Function. Control. The structure cannot stand without a foundation. Logic is the foundation of function. Function is the essence of control. I am in control. I am in control." : - Tuvok, while meditating with a Keethara. "Mr. Tuvok, if you're going to remain on my ship, you're going to have learn how to appreciate a joke. And don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humor; because I know better." : - Sulu, to Tuvok "Ensign, do you know this woman?" : - Sulu, to Tuvok regarding Janeway "You'll find that more happens on the bridge of a starship than just carrying out orders and observing regulations. There is a sense of loyalty to the men and women you serve with. A sense of family. Those two men on trial... I served with them for a long time. I owe them my life a dozen times over. And right now they're in trouble and I'm going to help them; let the regulations be damned." "That is a most illogical line of reasoning." "You better believe it. Helm, engage!" : - Sulu and Tuvok "Mr. Neelix, I would prefer not to hear the life history of my breakfast." : - Tuvok "Mr. Sulu, I see they have finally given you the captaincy you deserve." "Thank you, Kang." "Do not let it end prematurely." : - Kang and Sulu "As a Starfleet officer, it is my duty to formally protest." "Tuvok!" : - Tuvok and Janice Rand, after Tuvok speaks out against Captain Sulu's rescue mission "I don't know what happened to you, but there can be any number of explanations – hallucination, telepathic communication from another race, repressed memory, momentary contact with a parallel reality... take your pick. The universe is such a strange place." : - The Doctor to Tuvok "All right, Gamma Shift. Time to defend the Federation against gaseous anomalies." : - Janice Rand "Seal that conduit!" : - Hikaru Sulu "I've observed that Captain Sulu drinks a cup of tea each morning. I thought he might enjoy a Vulcan blend." "Oh, I see. Trying to make lieutenant in your first month? I wish I'd have thought of that when I was your age. Took me three years just to make ensign." "I assure you I have no ulterior motive." "Whatever you say, ensign. See you on the bridge." "You've never brought ''me tea." : - '''Tuvok', Rand and Janeway "It would seem that Captain Sulu decided not to enter that journey into his official log. The day's entry makes some cryptic remark about the ship being damaged in a gaseous anomaly and needing repairs, but... nothing else." "You mean, he falsified his logs?" "It was a very different time, Mister Kim. Captain Sulu, Captain Kirk, Doctor McCoy. They all belonged to a different breed of Starfleet officers. Imagine the era they lived in: the Alpha quadrant still largely unexplored... Humanity on verge of war with Klingons, Romulans hiding behind every nebula. Even the technology we take for granted was still in its early stages: no plasma weapons, no multi-phasic shields... Their ships were half as fast." "No replicators. No holodecks. You know, ever since I took Starfleet history at the Academy, I've always wondered what it would be like to live in those days." "Space must have seemed a whole lot bigger back then. It's not surprising they had to bend the rules a little. They were a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive, and a little quicker to pull their phasers. Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that." :- Kathryn Janeway and Harry Kim "Whew... Vulcans! You guys need to relax." : - Valtane "Who the hell are you?" : - Sulu to Janeway "We could have just asked her." "Asking female officers for their clothing could lead to misunderstanding." :- Janeway and Tuvok after subduing Commander Rand "Memory is a tricky thing." : - The Doctor "I'm curious: did the ''Excelsior ever save Kirk and McCoy?" "''Not directly. We were forced to retreat back to Federation space - as usual, Captain Kirk provided his own means of escape...But we ''did ''play an important role at the subsequent battle at Khitomer."" "Mr. Tuvok, if I didn't know you better, I'd say you miss those days on the ''Excelsior." : - '''Tuvok' and Janeway "But there are times when I think back to those days of meeting Kirk, Spock and the others, and I am pleased that I was part of it. "In a funny way, I feel like I was a part of it, too." "Then perhaps you can be nostalgic for both of us." :- Tuvok and Janeway Background Information Introductory Details * "Flashback" was Star Trek: Voyager s tribute both to the films starring the cast of the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|the original Star Trek series]] and to Star Trek s 30th anniversary, recreating many scenes from the feature film . *This episode was written and produced after UPN declared that, as they had done with the first and second seasons of Star Trek: Voyager, they would air four episodes produced at the end of the series' second season as part of its third season. Unlike on the first occasion that four episodes were held back for the next season, however, Voyager s producers had the opportunity, this time, to prepare for that eventuality. With the date of Star Trek s 30th anniversary located early in Voyager s third season, the studio executives at Paramount Pictures requested a Voyager episode that would fit the occasion. Early in this episode's development, co-executive producer Jeri Taylor remarked that the episode would be "one of the last four that UPN again wants to hold over until next fall." She added, "One of these episodes will be celebrating the big 30th anniversary of ''Star Trek, and so we have been asked to provide a tie-in to the original series." (Star Trek Monthly issue 15) This episode was, in production order, the third of the four that were written and produced during the second season of ''Star Trek: Voyager but intentionally included in the third season, the other episodes being , and . Story and Script *The initial idea for this episode related to the difficulty with Tuvok's memory. "We already had on hand the story premise of a memory problem for Tuvok that Janeway saves him from," writer and supervising producer Brannon Braga recalled, "and when the request came down from the studio for a 30th anniversary show, that seemed like a natural to get us back into that era without yet another time travel plot. We got the idea that we could posit Tuvok on an old ship, the ''Excelsior situation from ST:VI." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) Shortly after this story concept was thought up, Jeri Taylor commented, "''There is the possibility of Sulu in an episode .... Because studio want a contact from 30 years ago, we think we may be tying Sulu into a storyline." (Star Trek Monthly issue 15) *The episode's final draft script was submitted on 26 March, . *Brannon Braga originally wrote a scene in which Nyota Uhura, via viewscreen, provided some necessary plot points from the bridge of the . Actress Nichelle Nichols declined her invitation to appear in the episode, however, due to the limitedness of her part. (Star Trek Monthly issue 18) As a result, the scene was excluded from the story. Partly due to the scene's deletion, the episode ended up being approximately five minutes too short, so two additional scenes were especially written to fill up the rest of the episode's duration: an extension of Tuvok's breakfast with Neelix, and the Keethara scene between Tuvok and Kes. (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) The removal of the Uhura scene was done after 26 March, as evidenced by the cast list in the episode's final draft script, which includes Uhura among the episode's characters. * The episode was originally to have started with the log entry that, in the episode's final version, immediately follows the breakfast scene. * Cast members were generally impressed by the script. Sulu actor George Takei remarked, "I thought it was a very imaginative idea to bring a connection between Sulu and Tuvok. It turns out that he was on the bridge of the ''Excelsior when the Praxis incident happened, and so there we had a story." Similarly, Tuvok actor Tim Russ enthused, "''I thought it was a piece of genius, story-wise, to place my character in the front of this ship, you know, that was established in the feature film. We saw this scene, we saw this moment .... They decided to recreate the ''whole thing from scratch with him there and recreated the whole moment but put me in the ship at that time, which is a coup d'etat, story-wise, because nobody would see it coming." (''Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Russ also commented, "I thought it was a blast when I first heard about it, really a great idea. How do you tie in to the old series when you're in the Delta Quadrant? So it was just a kick to find out." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) Russ also liked how the episode's depiction of the Excelsior differed from Star Trek VI. He said, "I really appreciated the clever aspect of the storyline being placed inside a part of the ship from a certain angle that we never saw in the original film. Being able to play that out and being tied to that story so directly was great." (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) * However, according to George Takei, Tim Russ made some changes to the script. "He made script changes that made Tuvok's behavior consistent with Vulcan culture where the writers had been derelict," Takei recalled. "For example, the script suggested that Tuvok had had an affair with a non-Vulcan before his ''pon farr. He made sure that was corrected." (Star Trek Monthly issue 22) Cast and Characters *George Takei originally learned of his forthcoming appearance in this episode via a phone call from a fan who was also a friend of the actor. Takei recounted, "He said, 'Congratulations, George.' And I said, 'For what?' He says, 'I understand you're doing the guest shot on Voyager.' And I said, 'I am? I know nothing about it.' He said, 'Well, I saw it on the Internet.' I said, 'Oh well, you know, that's some fan's wishful writing on the Internet, and I wouldn't give it much credence.' But after I'd hung up with him, just to check it out, I called my agent, and I said, 'Steve, am I going to be doing a guest shot on Star Trek: Voyager?' He says, 'Nope, don't know anything about it.' And I said, 'I thought so.' And I hung up with him and I thought, you know, that's what it was, some fan writing something on the Internet. Well, about two weeks after that [while Takei was guest-starring on the Nickelodeon TV series ''Space Cases on location in Montreal''], my agent called me again and he said, 'George, you know what? The Internet was right. You are doing a guest shot on'' Star Trek: Voyager." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features; Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *Writing on the episode began only after George Takei accepted the invitation to appear. Brannon Braga recalled, "When George Takei was contacted and agreed to do it the writing took off." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *George Takei initially hoped that his guest spot on the series would allow him to work with the entire cast of Star Trek: Voyager, particularly with Garrett Wang. "When my agent confirmed for me that I was doing a guest shot on ''Voyager," Takei remembered, "''I was looking forward to working with the entire cast, because I've been watching the series and the only one I knew was Garrett Wang. I saw him in a play at UCLA when he was a student there and I thought he was a good, young actor, an up-and-coming young man. Now he's doing me at every convention that he goes to! So I was looking forward to working with the entire cast, and my only disappointment was that it was working with just Kate [Mulgrew] and Tim." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) *However, another regret for George Takei was that, due to Star Trek VI having been produced five years earlier (i.e., in ), the actors from that movie had changed so much that the original shots of them from the film could not be utilized and, generally, recreated scenes instead had to be filmed anew. (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) and George Takei on the Excelsior Bridge set of this episode]] *Director David Livingston was very pleased that George Takei decided to participate in the episode. "It's very exciting," Livingston said, midway through filming, "to have someone from Classic ''Star Trek to come in and do the show. George is wonderful–with his energy and enthusiasm, I feel like an old man around him! He's incredible, and his spirit infuses everything! He's wonderful as the captain. He's got this power that's terrific, and that wonderful voice of his!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *Tuvok actor Tim Russ also immensely enjoyed the opportunity to work with George Takei. Russ later commented, "''Working with George on the bridge, as Sulu's character, and having him aboard as a guest was wonderful, not only from a nostalgic standpoint but also because he's a very good actor, a very wonderful personality, very warm, very giving, very easy to work with, and we had a good time, and some good laughs." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Russ also noted, "It was a rush. It was a great honor and fun to work with George Takei in 'Flashback. " (Star Trek: Voyager Companion) *For his part, George Takei was very impressed by how knowledgeable Tim Russ was about Vulcans. Takei remarked, "I was impressed by how Tim has totally, completely and organically absorbed in his Vulcan heritage – the culture, the persona, the physiognomy, and the psyche of a Vulcan. He seems to be more knowledgeable about Vulcan history than any person I know, and he brings that quality to his portrayal of Tuvok. So I was very impressed by him, as an actor who makes a full and total commitment." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) *Having previously worked together on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, this episode reunited George Takei with Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand), Jeremy Roberts (Dmitri Valtane), Boris Krutonog (the Excelsior helmsman), and even some extras. David Livingston stated, "We brought back the actors that we could from ''Star Trek VI .... It was kind of surrealistic in a way because the actors were sort of picking up where they left off several years ago in a feature film and now they're doing a TV show. So that was fun, and great to work with George Takei and Grace Whitney and Boris Krutonog and whoever else we got from the original cast." (''Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) * As with George Takei, news that Grace Lee Whitney would be appearing in this episode was made available on the Internet before she even knew about the upcoming episode herself. At one point, Whitney met with Brannon Braga in his office and he advised her of some rewrites and script changes. (Star Trek Monthly issue 16) Whitney appreciated the largeness of her role in the episode. "This is really great for me because I really have dialogue," she said, "I have had an attitude, a purpose. I'm a lieutenant commander and I tell the ensign what to do!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) Prior to filming on the set, Whitney was introduced to Voyager s cast and crew. She was excited to meet them and vice versa. (Star Trek Monthly issue 16) Whitney was also pleased to be working with George Takei again. Likening the episode to their work on Star Trek VI, Whitney stated, "To be back on the bridge with George, it's just deja vu. When you watch the monitor of us working, you can hardly tell the difference." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) * During production, Grace Lee Whitney's eldest of two sons, Scott Dweck, was proud to visit the set. (Star Trek Monthly issue 19) He had prior connections with Star Trek himself, as he previously appeared as an Onlie in and as a [[Unnamed USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) personnel#Rec deck crewmembers|Vulcan Enterprise crewmember]] in . * Having worked with Grace Lee Whitney not only on Star Trek VI but also on the original Star Trek series decades beforehand, George Takei experienced a sense of nostalgia whilst working on a bridge set with her again for this episode. Midway through production, George Takei enthused, "It's a glorious, glorious feeling to be in that circular configuration with Gracie there. And it's a funny thing–it doesn't feel like it's been 30 years when you're in that setting. It feels like it was just yesterday. was wrong: you ''can indeed go home again, and it is so sweet!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) * David Livingston also enjoyed working with Grace Lee Whitney. "''Grace was great," he said, "a den mother but still with that Starfleet control and attitude." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) * Jeremy Roberts was thrilled to be invited to reprise his role of Valtane in this episode. The actor explained, "I was very surprised to get the call. After ''Star Trek VI I figured that was it, I was lucky to be in one. Of course, now I'm not too thrilled about dying in this one! In 1991 I was sitting there looking at George Takei and thinking, 'I'm part of it! All right!' And when it's over, that's it; I got pictures, that was enough for me. Then they call and say, 'You want to do it again?' I'm there!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) * Despite hobbling due to having recently pulled an Achilles tendon while playing basketball (a five-week old injury whose cast was effectively covered, during filming on the episode, with a black stocking), Boris Krutonog found that, as the ''Excelsior helmsman, he was able to appreciate appearing in Star Trek more in this case than he had done during production on Star Trek VI. He explained, "I was born in Russia, and there was no ''Star Trek in Russia .... So I started to realize the importance of Star Trek after Star Trek VI. Back then it was just another movie, but this–this is fun! And a piece of history!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) * George Takei was impressed by the attention to detail involved in recreating a certain scene from ''Star Trek VI, even down to the other performers who were present. Takei noted, "The recreation of the first explosion scene, the Praxis scene from ''Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; movement for movement, throw for throw, and all of the principal actors in that scene. Some had left the industry – one came back from Portland, Oregon, or some place like that, he told me, that he was no longer pursuing a career, but Paramount came after him. So their integrity and the tremendous research they did in finding all the actors was very impressive. I think even a couple of the extras were the original ones, as well." (''Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) * As of this episode, Michael Ansara (Kang) has played the same character on three different live-action Star Trek series. The only other actors to do so are Jonathan Frakes (Commander William T. Riker), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi), Armin Shimerman (Quark), John de Lancie (Q) and Richard Poe (Gul Evek). * Michael Ansara previously played Kang in both the Star Trek: The Original Series episode and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode . The scripted scene description for when Kang first appears in this episode reads, "A Klingon named Kang appears (as seen in the Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath," but he should look younger here)." Besides his appearances as Kang, Ansara also played Jeyal in the DS9 episode . Sets *This episode required that the Excelsior bridge, in the same configuration from Star Trek VI, be recreated. However, rebuilding the set was initially hampered by difficulties. David Livingston explained, "Richard James, our production designer, showed me the original plans of the bridge and I said, 'Build it!' and he said 'I don't know if they're going to let me!'–not enough money and not enough time. So they asked if I could shoot with just half of it. Well, no, there's three shooting days, explosions, people moving all around... how do you shoot on half a set?" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *Ultimately, several departments teamed together to recreate the bridge. David Livingston enthused, "It was wonderful how fast they were able to put that bridge together .... I don't know how they did it, but the art department, construction department and the production department all got together and found the money to do it. They had to work a couple of weekends, but they pulled it together and it's amazing." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *Although the Excelsior bridge had taken the film crew of Star Trek VI twelve weeks to build from scratch, Richard James and the rest of the art department were tasked with reconstructing the same bridge set in less than two weeks, so some elements of the set were necessarily made simpler. Scenic art supervisor Michael Okuda (yet another production staffer who worked on Star Trek VI) acknowledged, "Some things had to be simplified, but I think everyone's got a lot to be proud of." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) *Only a tiny portion of the original Excelsior bridge set survived in storage, having been cannibalized for DS9 (notably, for use on the ) or , or else simply destroyed. However, the main viewscreen, the ops and conn consoles, as well as the aft bridge alcove and the consoles on either side of it had all been kept in storage. (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *The Excelsior bridge's graphics that were available from storage included virtually all the upper-level graphics and half the mid-level displays. Scenic artists Wendy Drapanas and Jim Magdaleno digitized much of Michael Okuda's art from Star Trek VI, producing it much quicker than it had originally been done. Okuda stated, "Wendy Drapanas and Jim Magdaleno again recreated all the backlits, because – even though the set existed – there was a great deal of work to be done." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *All the tape loops of sensor images used in Star Trek VI were found, fairly intact, in storage. These loops were then displayed on twenty-five video "computer monitors" on the reconstructed Excelsior bridge set. Monitors were loaned from both DS9 and , in a concerted effort to help produce Voyager s anniversary installment. Finally, the positions and exact timings of the loops were intricately matched with footage from Star Trek VI. Video supervisor Denise Okuda recalled, "Michael and I sat in front of our laserdisk ''ST:VI at home and tried frame by frame to match it. There were inconsistencies in the film due to editing, but we tried to match as much as possible the location and position of the monitors. The only downside is that our taped displays today are around 5-10 minutes long to give the video operators a break, but the tapes from ST:VI are a maximum of 12 minutes." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108; ''Star Trek Monthly issue 22) For his part, Michael Okuda stated, "Our video operator, Ben Betts, put in an amazing number of hours along with Denise Okuda, to recreate as much as possible all the video monitors we had on the set." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Wardrobe * Remarking on how his 23rd century uniform felt, Tim Russ stated, "Like a rug: thick and heavy, all wool. The shirt underneath is Lycra, but they're generally much harder to get in and out of." (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) * Grace Lee Whitney had her costume fitting for the episode on Wednesday, 27 March, 1996. (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) Production *Filming on this episode started in March 1996; Grace Lee Whitney's first day of working on the episode was the 27th of that month, she having been informed of the episode perhaps only a week and a half before the start date. (Star Trek Monthly issue 16) Following a meeting with the producers to collect a script on Thursday 28 March and attending the long-planned Novacon IV convention (at which Robert Picardo also guested) in during the upcoming weekend, Whitney returned to the Paramount lot on her birthday of Monday, 1 April, for a 4:15 a.m. makeup call. (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108; Star Trek Monthly issue 16) *Although the Excelsior scenes in Star Trek VI had taken less than a week to film, the equivalent scenes of this episode required three days of filming on the ship's bridge (i.e., George Takei attended filming on three days), and another two days for the scenes set in the officers' bunkroom. (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *While most of the scenes aboard the Excelsior had to be filmed anew, David Livingston found that filming scenes that were "sort of continuations of the feature film ... was a real challenge and really fun to do." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) In fact, Livingston recreated some of the same camera angles that director Nicholas Meyer had used in Star Trek VI. "We couldn't recreate some of them," Livingston admitted, "because we didn't have enough time and the wherewithal to do so, but we did match some of the same angles. Some I did differently because by necessity it had to fit into the story ''we were telling, but I thought it would be fun for the fans to see some of the same camera angles. So the people who know Star Trek VI should get a big kick out of it. I am." Furthermore, several visual effects shots, together with the shot of Sulu's teacup shattering, were reused directly from the film. (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *David Livingston also employed a filming technique whereby a continual shot moves all the way around a character. The episode's first scene in which this camera move is incorporated involves Tuvok in a turbolift, ''en route to sickbay during the teaser, in which the technique is used only once, with the camera revolving on a horizontal axis. The second time the technique is used is in the scene wherein Tuvok collapses in Engineering, in which the camera rotates on a vertical axis while hovering on a close-up of Tuvok. Livingston commented, "We did 360s stuff .... If you want to, you can sort of do that on ''Star Trek. Sometimes, they look at you askance. But, God, if you can't do it on a science fiction show with people wearing screwy make-up, where else are you going to do it? So, to me, it's play and you might as well go for it because, if you don't, you're going to regret it later. Try not to be boring, that's the main thing, try not to be boring. So, making 360s around a character who's going nuts? That makes sense to me. That's not boring, I hope." (''Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) *One of two reasons (the other being a scene deletion) why this episode was, at one point, not long enough was that David Livingston employed a characteristically fast-paced style in creating the episode's action. "We were just over 5 minutes short," he noted, before saying in reference to the producers, "I had warned them, but I guess they wanted to wait and see how much." Of the two scenes that were duly added to the episode, Livingston remarked, "The Neelix scene has a good drive, but the Kes scene is very slowly paced to milk it for every frame we could get out of it!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *In the episode's first view of Sulu, the character emerges from smoke and assumes an heroic stance. David Livingston recalled, "I wanted to, for the audience's delight and hopefully surprise, I wanted to do a really cool reveal of Sulu, because we didn't really know where we were initially. So what we did was – the ship was in distress, so that's always a justification for me to have liquid nitrogen pouring out of somewhere – so what we did was, on the ship, we created this big wall of liquid nitrogen, put the camera really low, and then had George walk through it in this very heroic pose and it was a great reveal of him. It surprised the audience and made him look really, really cool, so that was fun." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) Effects *The visual effects shots that had originally been created for ''Star Trek VI and were reused in this episode were exterior shots of the Excelsior and the shock wave from the explosion of Praxis. The exterior views that are not taken from Star Trek VI, however, show a slightly different ship; the Excelsior s warp nacelles have the typical blue glow in the new footage but not in the original. *The shot of the Excelsior emerging from the nebula and causing an explosion that disables the pursuing Klingon ship was created by filming the motion-control studio models, detonations that were shot with a Photo-Sonics camera pointing straight up and running at 360 frames per second rather than the typical 24, and an element to show clouds billowing apart. Of the explosions, visual effects producer Dan Curry explained, "If you have a small explosion happen in real time, it may occur like pfft! and it's over. But if you take a special camera that runs film at very high speed, ... it stretches time. So, an explosion that in real life may take a split-second can be stretched out into several seconds, so it looks vast. And by shooting it straight up, it gives the illusion that it's happening in space without gravity, because all the parts of the explosion fall equally around the lens, so there's no apparent arc from gravity, so that we will accept that it happens in space." Of the cloud-like element, Dan Curry said, "What ''that was was a four-inch deep, four-by-four-foot vat, lined with black velvet and filled up with vapors of liquid nitrogen, which stay in the vat because they're heavier than air because they're so cold. Then, Ron Moore took a piece of cardboard, or sometimes he used a Dust-Off can, and just put a little puff of air down, which would push the liquid nitrogen apart, and then it would billow back in. And because it's so cold and the way the vapors move, it moves very slowly so it looks huge, even though it's a very tiny thing." (''Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) First Airing & Reception *According to Grace Lee Whitney, when Brannon Braga advised her of script revisions, her first concern was how much she could tell [[Trekkie|the fans of Star Trek]]. Although Whitney believed that the episode could not have been possible without fan support, Braga's reply was for her to tell the fans nothing. (Star Trek Monthly issue 16) *Even before she began performing in the episode, Whitney had a chance to gauge audience reaction to it during the Novacon IV convention, held in the weekend prior to production. "I lifted up the script at the convention," she recalled, "and the fans just went crazy." Remarking on the episode itself, she said, "It's wonderful for the show; it keeps the fans interested, and it's a great tie-in for the anniversary .... George has a wonderful speech about the family of the ''Enterprise sticking together, which Tuvok just can't understand. The fans will love it!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) *George Takei, who had fought long and hard for a Captain Sulu series to be greenlighted, hoped that the success of this episode might finally grant him that wish. "''This could be the first early warning sign!" Takei remarked. "Sometimes they use episodes as a pilot before they commit to a series, so – knock on wood!" (Star Trek Monthly issue 22) * The date on which this episode first aired was three days after Star Trek s 30th anniversary. *Although no new Star Trek series with Sulu in command was ultimately commissioned, Rick Berman commented that this episode was "a lot of fun and ... did very well in the ratings." (Star Trek Monthly issue 24) Continuity * Prior to this episode, a Captain Sulu is mentioned in the Season 2 episode and, in the later second season episode , Tuvok references Spock's initially controversial recommendation for an alliance between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, as depicted in Star Trek VI. In the latter episode, Tuvok mentions that he himself "spoke out against such a coalition," placing him at the time when the film is set, as this episode continues to do. * Tim Russ thought the way in which this story places Tuvok on the bridge of the Excelsior was foolproof, in regard to continuity. "Nobody could question it," he said. "The timeline was consistent so nobody could say, 'Hey, he couldn't possibly, blah-blah,' or, 'No, we didn't see that, blah-de-blah' – they couldn't say it; it worked perfectly. So, I thought that was the coolest thing, because they make sure the fans don't catch anything. That's always a neat trick." (Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) *Tim Russ also liked how this episode provided much continuity for Tuvok that the actor could later draw on. Russ commented, "The whole story becoming a back-story for Tuvok... I thought was great. It tightens the relationship between he and the captain, and it exposes to the people of the audience what this character is all about, where he comes from. Because before that, we didn't ''have a history for him. And after that, we had a history for him. Now he's got a back-story, now he becomes a little bit more complete, as a person. Now, if he does something three episodes down the line, ah well, that's because so-and-so was established way-back-when. And that's always beneficial when you're playing the character as you have something to grab onto. So, 'I can use this, because we learned this.' We know where he came from, we understand what happened and now, you can use that as a motivational factor down the line. So it's always good to have that." (''Flashback to "Flashback", VOY Season 3 DVD special features) * The death of Dmitri Valtane is an obvious continuity error, as he is seen standing on the bridge of the Excelsior, behind Captain Sulu, at the end of Star Trek VI. * Another continuity error is that Sulu's attempt to rescue Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe happens only 4 days after the Praxis explosion. However, at the Starfleet Command briefing (early in Star Trek VI), Spock states, "''Two months ago, a Federation Starship monitored an explosion on the Klingon moon Praxis." * At one point before or during production, Brannon Braga cryptically told Grace Lee Whitney that her character of Janice Rand might later be brought back to the series. The actress fondly recalled, "''Brannon Braga was very cute with his remark: We're not killing you off, Grace, so we can bring you back!" (Star Trek: Communicator, issue #108) This Voyager episode is, however, the only one in which Rand appears. * Although they both appear in this episode, neither Sulu nor Janice Rand appear in , Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s own 30th anniversary tribute episode. In fact, George Takei is the only regular cast member from Star Trek: The Original Series who does not feature in that episode of DS9. The reason for Grace Lee Whitney's absence from the episode is that she had left the original series by the time (during which the DS9 episode is set) was produced. Apocrypha * The novelization of this episode (written by Diane Carey) includes several additional elements, the most prominent subplot being Kes succumbing to Tuvok's hallucinations as his own telepathic barriers begin to collapse, causing Tuvok to unintentionally assault Kes and cause her to take on the role of the girl in his hallucination. This continues to such an extent that Kes attempts to attack Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres as they conduct a survey of the nebula in a shuttle, motivated by Tuvok's 'transferred' memory of the attack on Excelsior, until the repressed memory is treated and the virus is removed. Video and DVD releases *UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.1, . *As part of the VOY Season 3 DVD collection. *As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Captain's Log collection. Links and references Main cast *Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway *Robert Beltran as Commander Chakotay *Roxann Biggs-Dawson as Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres *Jennifer Lien as Kes *Robert Duncan McNeill as Lieutenant Tom Paris *Ethan Phillips as Neelix *Robert Picardo as The Doctor *Tim Russ as Lieutenant Tuvok *Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim Guest stars *Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand *Jeremy Roberts as Dmitri Valtane *Boris Krutonog as Lojur *Michael Ansara as Kang ;And *George Takei as Captain Sulu Uncredited co-stars *Tarik Ergin as Ayala *Sara Hart as an ''Excelsior'' crewman *Kerry Hoyt as Fitzpatrick *Demetris Lawson as young Tuvok *Susan Lewis as an operations division officer *Louis Ortiz as an ''Excelsior'' alien crewman *Shepard Ross as Murphy *L. Stachawiak as an ''Excelsior'' crewman *John Tampoya as Kashimuro Nozawa *Talon Tears as an ''Excelsior'' crewman *Unknown performers as **Murphy **''Excelsior'' navigator **Tuvok's roommate **[[USS Excelsior personnel#Bridge security officers|Two Excelsior security officers]] **[[USS Excelsior personnel#Bridge crewmembers|Six Excelsior bridge crewmembers]] **''Voyager'' science division officer **Six children during mind meld **Young Dmitri Valtane **Young Kathryn Janeway Stunt doubles * Unknown stunt performers as ** Stunt double for Jeremy Roberts ** Stunt double for George Takei References 47; acid; adrenaline; antibody; argon; Azure Nebula; blood factor; Bolian; Bussard collector; cartilage; class 17 nebula; class 11 nebula; cortical stimulator; cordrazine; crew quarters; crustacean; deflector shield; dill weed; dizziness; encephalographic profile; ''Enterprise''-A, USS; enthraxic citrus peel; ''Excelsior'', USS; ; fluorine; garnish; Golwat; hallucination; heart rate; helium; hippocampus; hydrogen; ice cream scoop; junior science officer; Keethara; Khitomer; kilodyne; Kirk, James T.; Klingon battle cruiser; Klingon Empire; Kolinahr; ; lobotomy; McCoy, Leonard; memory virus; mind meld; neurocortical monitor; neuroelectricity; orange juice; oxygen; panic attack; papalla seed extract; pantry; parallel reality; parboiling; parietal bone; peptide; plasma conduit; pon farr; Porakan eggs; Porakas IV; positron beam; Praxis; Prime Directive; pyllora; Qo'noS; rengazo; repressed memory; shotgun; sirillium; Spock; Starfleet Headquarters; storage bay 3; subspace shock wave; synaptic pathway; tachyon sweep; Talax; tea; telepathy; thermal array; theta-xenon; thoron radiation; T'lokan schism; T'Pel; Vulcan; ''Wyoming'', USS; ''Yorktown'', USS |next= }} de:Tuvoks Flashback es:Flashback nl:Flashback Category:VOY episodes